Should Your Company Take a Stand on Political and Social Issues?
Why Every Day Is Proxy Season for Public Companies
Corporate Law Report - Office Party Holiday Risks, Human Trafficking, the Fiscal Cliff, More
The first half of 2024 was eventful in the world of environmental, social and governance (“ESG”). Although ESG continued to lose the market tailwinds that have pushed it forward in recent years, regulatory pressures both...more
In preparation for the 2023 proxy season, proxy advisory firms Glass Lewis and Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) announced updates to their voting guidelines for investors, effective on January 1, 2023, and February 1,...more
The two dominant proxy advisory firms — Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass Lewis (GL) — have issued their policy updates for the 2022 proxy season. These updates reflect the continuing trend of institutional...more
On November 3, 2021, the Staff of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Corporation Finance issued Staff Legal Bulletin No. 14L (the New SLB), which will make it more difficult for companies to exclude social...more
On November 3, 2021, the staff (“staff”) of the Division of Corporation Finance (“Division”) of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) published Staff Legal Bulletin No. 14L which reverses a series of...more
Institutional Shareholder Services (“ISS”) and Glass Lewis recently released their respective policy updates for the 2021 proxy season. Key updates are summarized below....more
In a significant development for ESG and corporate governance, BlackRock is now calling on the public companies it invests in to publish disclosures in line with the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) and the...more
Preparations for annual reporting on Form 10-K and the 2020 proxy season have begun in earnest for many companies. We have summarized certain governance and disclosure developments that should be considered in the course of...more
As you know, topics related to corporate social responsibility have ascended to the forefront for many stakeholders, and CSR is sometimes viewed to comprise issues related to firearms safety. With the renewed national debate...more
SEC Penalizes Company for Non-Compliance with Equal or Greater Prominence Requirement in Earnings Releases - In late December, the SEC settled its first “equal or greater prominence” enforcement action under its non-GAAP...more
Institutional Shareholder Services ("ISS") and Glass, Lewis & Co ("Glass Lewis") have both released their updates to their respective Canadian proxy voting guidelines for the 2019 proxy season. The ISS updates apply to...more
This memorandum outlines considerations for foreign private issuers ("FPIs") in preparation for the 2019 annual reporting season. Part I (pg. 2) provides a summary of certain key trends and insights from the 2018 US proxy...more
The 10-K and proxy season begins in a little over a month for companies with calendar fiscal year-ends. The following governance and disclosure developments should be considered in the course of preparing these filings....more
’Tis the season, and no, we do not mean the holiday season. Although it may seem like you just filed your 2018 proxy, the 2019 proxy season is upon us. This quick reference guide, which is intended to supplement Shearman &...more
ISS recently announced the 2019 updates to its proxy voting policies, which can be found here and which will be applied to annual meetings held on or after February 1, 2019. Among the various updates provided by ISS, the...more
On November 13, 2018, Skadden held our webinar “Preparing for the Shareholder Proposal Season.” The panelists were Peter da Silva Vint, Vice President of BlackRock’s Americas Investment Stewardship Group; Michael Garland,...more
In conjunction with the Equilar report, Corporate Governance Outlook 2018, featuring commentary by Hogan Lovells and Donnelley Financial Solutions, this webinar will explore upcoming trends for the 2018 proxy season and...more
With the 2017 proxy season over for most companies, attention now turns to preparing for 2018. There are a number of compliance "musts" to focus on, as well as items that can be addressed in 2017 to make the 2018 proxy season...more
Companies who engage with their large institutional shareholders on environmental and social issues during the 2018 proxy season should keep in mind that these investors are facing pressure from other investors on their...more
As the 2017 proxy season draws to a close for most companies, it is obvious that shareholder activism remains alive and well, though the actual number of public activist campaigns appears to have tapered off slightly as...more
Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass Lewis, two leading proxy advisory firms, recently published their 2015 proxy voting guidelines for US companies, which include several updates applicable to the 2015 proxy...more
Proxy advisory firms Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (ISS) and Glass Lewis have both released their voting policies for the 2015 proxy season. The policy changes for U.S. companies include updates to the firms’...more
As companies begin to prepare for the 2015 proxy season, it will be important to anticipate the types of shareholder proposals they should expect so that they can develop a more meaningful response. This can be accomplished...more